It was the beginning of a new era at CES on Monday when Sony announced its first smartphone since the firm bought out Ericsson from their joint mobile phone venture.

Available globally in the first quarter 2012, the Xperia S is the first of the under fire Japanese electronics giant's new NXT series with the consumer heavy-focus as ever on multimedia and entertainment functionality.

Under the covers the device is powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) although it will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich by the second quarter.

The NFC-enabled phone has a high res HD screen, 12 megapixel camera and a new design dubbed "Iconic Identity" which Sony says helps emphasise the display.

Other nifty additions enabled by its Android OS include SmartWatch, which allows Android to wirelessly access calls, messages and apps and Xperia Smart Tags, which launch pre-configured, personalised settings when NFC Android phones are swiped against them.

Sony also pushed the device's entertainment credentials, saying it is PlayStation certified and offers access to the firm's Entertainment Network via an HDMI TV connection. Photos can also be shared wirelessly, Sony added.

Whether this device is the one to propel Sony into the top tier of Android smartphone vendors along with HTC and Samsung remains to be seen. Only time will tell whether its €1.05bn buy out of Ericsson was a stroke of genius or the final nail in the coffin of its smartphone ambitions.

Also at CES, Sony showed off its dual-screen Tablet P as well as the Vita portable gaming device and other innovations.

Five years ago today, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs stood on stage at the annual MacWorld event and unveiled a device that would transform the mobile phone market forever.

The device was, of course, the iPhone and it kicked the mobile phone industry into a whole new era, with the effects still being felt today as Google, Research in Motion, Microsoft and Nokia have all been forced to play catch-up in the battle for market share.

Jobs knew Apple was on to a winner when he launched the device, arguing it was far ahead of any other device on the market, which at the time meant unattractive, brick-like machines which lacked the sense of fun and style that were the iPhone's trademarks.

"[The] iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is five years ahead of any other mobile phone. We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse," he boasted.

Now, of course, Apple is under more pressure than ever from its rivals, particularly from Android-based handsets from manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, but the continued appetite shown for each new device the firm launches, most recently the iPhone 4S, shows it still has a cutting edge in the market.

The next 12 months are likely to be a key time for the market too after the sad passing of Jobs, with Apple expected to unveil the iPhone 5 at some point in the coming year.

A key figure in this development is likely to be the recently knighted Jony Ive, the head of industrial design at the firm and Jobs' "spiritual partner", whose job it is to produce the next wave of devices at Apple with a clear mission to maintain its status as the top-dog in the smartphone industry.

Certainly, if the firm can achieve the same level of success in the next five years with its iPhone devices as it did in the first five, Ive will have proved himself a worthy successor, with a little help from Tim Cook of course.

Mobile operator Three has revealed that a whopping 97 per cent of all its contract sales in September were for smartphones, declaring demand for feature phones all but "dead".

Phil Sheppard, the firm's director of network strategy, also revealed that a huge 75 per cent of the pay-as-you-go devices it sells are smartphones, despite the fact that they can cost up to £500 on a SIM-only deal.

"We have seen massive growth in the use of smartphones and internet-capable phones in the last 14 months. The feature phone market is dead," he said at a Westminster Forum event on Thursday.

The figures are an increase on the 92 per cent sales of smartphone contracts in December 2010 and 50 per cent sales of smartphones on pay-as-you-go deals.

The numbers are perhaps not surprising given the trend of consumers favouring smartphones, but the scale of the demand is somewhat staggering, and V3 is left wondering about the hardy three per cent doggedly sticking to their feature phones.

Perhaps it's the same people V3 noticed at the VMware event in Copenhagen who were carrying around a basic, indestructible Nokia to make calls, and using their iPhone for everything else because of the unpredictability of smartphones for voice calls.

Of course, there will no doubt be those who prefer to stick with feature phones given their simplicity, while figures from the larger network operators may give a better insight into the true demand for such devices.

But it won't be too long before the idea of playing Snake on a Nokia 3310 becomes as outdated as the mangle or horse and cart. One to tell the grandchildren about.

New research has highlighted a growing trend of personal devices being used in the workplace, and the loss of equipment and lack of coherent policy around mobile device management have become major problems.

Internet service provider Timico surveyed a range of small and medium sized firms and found that three-quarters are concerned about employees bringing their own device into work.

These fears appear well founded, given that just under a third had lost between 20 and 100 devices in the past year, while 42 per cent said that up to 20 per cent were lost or stolen.

However, it is also clear that firms are doing themselves no favours. Around a third said that they don't have a policy to deal with bring-your-own-device practices in the workplace.

Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at Timico, told V3 that security, risk and cost are all major concerns for companies considering such initiatives, but that most now "recognise there's a tide they cannot stem".

Davies emphasised the importance of having tools in place to manage devices from one pane of glass, but warned that there are several hurdles to be overcome to make it work.

Legal, HR, finance and IT teams all need to be involved in drawing up policy at an early stage, he advised, and employees need to know that they must give up certain privileges if they are to be allowed to use their own devices at work.

"If you're asking a member of staff that you effectively want to take control of their device it is a bit of a leap of faith for that staff member, and there is a certain mindset that needs to be overcome," Davies said.

"However, there are case studies with employees lapping it up. They appreciate that the company has seen a problem and is doing something about it."

Davies added that much of the consumerisation of enterprise IT has been brought about because traditionally strong enterprise device manufacturers such as RIM and Nokia have fallen by the wayside.

"The kit you can get now as a consumer is far ahead of the business equivalent," he said.

Research from Dell KACE this week backs up many of Timico's findings. A whopping 90 per cent of employees use personal devices at work, but two-thirds have security concerns about this trend.

More than half said their organisation lacks the necessary tools to effectively manage these devices.

Timico and Dell KACE have a vested commercial interest in highlighting the need for better mobile device management, but the consumerisation of IT is certainly not going away and IT managers in all companies will have to confront it sooner or later.

The mobile phone market is certainly not for the faint-hearted. There's a slew of legal tussles going on, firms battling it out for market share, and innovation and creativity leading the charge in the brave new world of mobile computing.

Microsoft is in the thick of it, the company's Windows Phone 7 platform still trying to gain traction as it touts new features in the Mango update and teams up with Nokia to boost market share.

However, there's clearly more to come from Microsoft, as a mysterious and tantalising job advert on the firm's site reveals.

"We are a team working on a top secret project inside the Windows Phone division. Our mission ... GO BIG! DISRUPT THE MARKET!" it reads.

Wow, capatilisation. It must be important. Perhaps it's for a tablet? Does 'GO BIG!' mean an increase in size, or an increased market share? What could disrupt the market, aside from another legal case? So many questions.

Details remain vague thereafter, but there's some wishy-washy stuff about what the role might entail, and then more outlandish claims on a scale that would make Microsoft's ebullient chief executive proud.

"In this role you would be on point to work with product planning, design, UX research and the feature team to glue pieces of feature together and build delighting user experiences," it adds.

"Come make our product sing to customers! It's a chance to see your work showcased by millions of customers for years to come!"

Those interested should get their applications in quick. A job ad this full of hyperbole is bound to be popular.

So often, when a company hypes an announcement it's either a massive letdown or it's not an announcement at all but confirmation of well-known speculation.

Yet, richer-than-you'll-ever-be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has promised that his company has something "awesome" to announce next week, according to the folks at Reuters.

We at V3.co.uk thought we'd have a stab at guessing what it might be. Obviously it could be something practical and useful, like a dedicated iPad application to help users navigate and interact with Facebook on their shiny Apple toy, or perhaps some form of dedicated photo-sharing application so friends can pass content around.

But maybe it's something more exciting and outlandish than that. Perhaps Facebook is launching its own tablet, maybe a smartphone built and crafted by its own fair hands.

Or what about a 'dislike' button? There's certainly enough self-pitying, political-baiting, showing-off statuses written by the millions of users on the site that need to be taken down a peg or two.

No, we've got it, they've got a celebrity innovator onboard. Following on from Justin Timberlake getting involved in MySpace and Intel buddying up with Will.i.am, Facebook has Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Rihanna waiting in the wings: Zuckerberg's Angels.

Or maybe Zuckerberg likes Google's Circles system on the Google+ social networking tool so much he's going to add it to Facebook.

We'll just have to wait until next week to see what Facebook's got up it sleeve, although it's probably the dedicated iPad app. Boring.

But what do you think? Let us know below and we'll see who's closest next week.

The recession has been shaping the course of the UK for the past few years, but success stories do exist within the doom and gloom.

The BBC2 show Made in Britain, fronted by everyone's favourite TV economist Evan Davis, has set out to prove this point. Monday night's show focused on the work of chip company ARM as an example of the high-quality innovation the UK can boast.

Davis went to ARM's Cambridge headquarters and spoke to president Tudor Brown, who explained that the company was formed on the back of a request from Apple for a chipset for its PDA device, the Newton, before growing rapidly in the mid 1990s.

"In the mid 1990s the mobile phone revolution started and Nokia was the first to adopt our technology. Now ARM power is pretty much in every mobile phone," he said.

Brown elaborated on the company's strategy, explaining that it makes a huge profit by designing the chipsets but leaving the production and distribution to others.

"We don't make the chips, but we license them to semiconductor companies and we get a licence fee for that. When they make and sell them they also pay us a royalty and we get a few cents on each chip," he said.

"Six billion were made this year, so add that up and it means the company is doing very well."

As Davis noted, this means that ARM is worth around £7bn and is one of the UK's most successful firms, despite being relatively unknown.

ARM works side by side with US companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft, and the firm's chief executive, Warren East, said with a wonderfully David Brent turn of phrase that its innovation-based strategy has helped it to rake in the profits.

"We enable, and we don't pick winners. We believe that sharing a slice of a very big pie is much better than having the whole of a much smaller pie," he said.

ARM's success may be buried deep inside the headline-grabbing gadgets of Google, Apple and Microsoft, but as the BBC found out, it's a success story which proves that the UK can innovate with the best of them.

You can watch the section covering ARM in the show from 23:48 minutes on the BBC iPlayer.

Mobile phone users should thank Ofcom for making their life easier after the telecoms watchdog brought in new rules today forcing mobile operators to provide a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) within a maximum of two hours.

The code is required when a customer wants to switch network operator and keep the same number, but previously it could take days for this code to arrive. Ofcom now requires it to be given immediately over the phone or sent by text within two hours.

Ernest Doku, a technology expert at uSwitch.com, said the move would give consumers far more control over their mobile phone contracts by helping them to get the best deals, while keeping their all important number.

"The process of keeping your phone number when you switch networks has been extremely cumbersome and has been a major barrier to switching. Over 18 million have never switched network over concerns about losing their number," he said.

"Mobile numbers are as important as home addresses these days. Anyone who has lost their phone will know what a hassle it is to contact everyone you know with your new number - so of course people want to keep their number when they switch."

By a neat coincidence, research by mathematics analytics group Billmonitor has revealed that UK consumers could save billions if they switched their mobile phone contract to a tariff that more accurately reflected their usage levels.

The group analysed 28,417 anonymised bills from customers on O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile over the past 18 months and found that a whopping £4.89bn is wasted every year due to the wrong contract being used.

Some 52 per cent of customers have a tariff that is too large, while 29 per cent are on a tariff that's too small, so they pay extra charges, while 19 per cent do not optimise free benefits and allowances or use lower costs on 24-month contracts.

The site has launched an impressive tool to coincide with this release that requires access to your online billing account before generating a report specific to you that offers the best possible contract based on your usage.

So if you've always thought you could get a better deal, now's the time to find out - and if you can, there should be no issues around changing provider quickly and keeping your number.

This video from Billmonitor shows why so many UK consumers have the wrong mobile phone contract.